P.S.

[amatyultare]

A couple of days ago, I ranted at length about the book and movie Eragon. Part of my rant, of course, was about the stories from which the author blatantly stole. But after all that, and only after I finished writing that whole thing, I realized I had missed one significant similarity/rip-off/what-have-you. And as far as I know, most reviewers have missed it as well. So, you've read it here first:

Eragon is a new-fantasy-retelling of the King Arthur myth.

1. Eragon was spirited away from his 'real' family into the wilderness.

2. He reclaims his birthright when he is 15 (thank you Wikipedia).

3. Said birthright comes in the form of a sword and a 'stone' (the dragon egg, but he thinks at first that it's stone).

4. This birthright indicates that Eragon should/will be the new ruler of his kingdom

And not yet said in the books, but this is my prediction:

5. Morzac (the husband of Eragon's mother) isn't actually Eragon's father (although Uther Pendragon was the king, and I doubt that that Galbatorix is Eragon's father, although that would be a hilarious Star Wars-like plot twist; I'm betting on Brom).

Maybe this should make me like the books better, but it doesn't. It just makes me even more tired, not to mention sad that this absolute trash seems to be enthralling so many. Maybe this is the way people who are sticklers for *great* writing felt about the popularity of the Harry Potter series? But at least the HP series had an engaging hero and an interesting plot that at least had some original *details*....unlike Eragon.

Comments

[lacontessa11.livejournal.com]

I kinda like subtle re-tellings of older stories transformed for new worlds, but based on the fact that I've never once heard anything good about Eragon, I wouldn't even give it a try.

[amatyultare.livejournal.com]

I highly recommend you stick to that resolution to never read it unless you for some reason feel the need to be mentally masochistic. It's utterly painful. I also enjoy retellings of classic stories IF there's some kind of originality/good characters/quality writing involved, but without any of the three, what's the point?